Essential HuffPost

India jumped into 100th place on the World Bank's ranking of countries by Ease of Doing Business for the first time in its report for 2018, up about 30 places, driven by reforms in access to credit, power supplies and protection of minority investors.

Main News

A massive explosion ripped a boiler at the state-run power giant NTPC's Unchahar plant in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district today, killing at least 20 people and injuring nearly 100, officials said.

At least two people were killed and one injured in a shooting inside a Walmart store in suburban Denver on Wednesday, police said.

In a first, the Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Centre to constitute special courts to exclusively try criminal cases involving politicians.

Off The Front Page

In a first, an Indian canine breed is being trained for induction into the Army, which has been using foreign breeds like German Shepherds, Labradors and Great Swiss Mountain dogs till now.

A week after a man allegedly pushed off four of his daughters from a running train, resulting in the death of one of the girls in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district, government railway police traced the culprit's house in Bihar's Bettiah town. The accused is still absconding.

A day after naming Prem Kumar Dhumal as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh, party chief Amit Shah hit out at incumbent CM Virbhadra Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi saying they were deeply enmeshed in corruption.

Opinion

In The Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes about the strategies employed by the Chinese Communist Party to bury the revolutionary spirit of 1917.

The Sikh community has largely moved on from the massacres of 1984 but justice still eludes them. The call for it should emanate from all self respecting citizens who place a premium on the rule of law, writes HS Puri and HS Khalsa in the Hindustan Times.